Your progress through the southern half of the city hastens as your advance is now protected by Izu’s barriers. Just as you turn back to see where your apprentice is, he rushes ahead to draw out more enemies from their cover.

“You shouldn’t be here!” A concerned soldier shouts at him.

The sight of a single young boy in all the chaos causes them all to hesitate, giving Izu ample opportunity to set up numerous small barriers in front of their faces. He shatters them all instantly, and tearing shards of solid fire embed themselves deep into their vulnerable faces.

Their cries of anguish are snuffed out as a single flame of yours springs between all visible targets, enjoying the blinded and helpless prey.

“And how did you learn how to do that?” You place your hands firmly on your hips.

He wipes away white ash from his hands onto his knees. “Those creatures by the market didn’t like me very much.” He straightens himself out and grins. “Plus, I got a few ideas from you.”

This link you two have seems to have numerous benefits for him, you can’t help but feel a bit envious-

You point a finger at the boy’s widening grin. “Stop.”

“It’s not as one-sided as you think.” He says quickly before running off once again, forcing you to chase after him.

The two of you proceed down a wide road searching for more targets, Izu leaps over a large water canal that carves its way through most of this part of the city.

You cease running immediately as in the distance, you spot Disgur, Justina, and Sivaht making their own way forward. Izu, senses your concern, and stops immediately to turn back to you.

Just as he does, an enormous column of steam rises from the entirety of the water channel and rises high into the air. The wind is not in your favor, so you have to fall back as you feel the scalding bite of the white steam.

Ugh, perfect timing.

You search for the culprit and you briefly spot three Pyromancers channeling power into canal far away from you. The steam covers sight of them, preventing you from doing anything about this from afar.

Commotion from beyond the wall of steam lets you know that Izu and the others have run into another ambush.

You could risk teleporting beyond the wall of steam, but there’s no guarantee that you won’t find yourself directly in the path of a fireball, but making your way to Pyromancers responsible for this wall, will take time.

There’s too much at risk beyond that wall. You try to recall how far you’ve been forced away from the canal and then focus a seal that keeps most of the steam from flowing toward you.

You push forward, guarding your face with your arms, but you still feel a great deal of pain as steam flows underneath your armor. Once close enough, you desperately teleport as far as you can and land unsteadily.

Immediately you feel a great impact, as fireball after fireball crashes into Izu’s barrier right next to you. Dozens of fireballs have already chipped away most of the barrier, and it shatters in front of you.

Another pale yellow barrier begins to form in front of you, but it isn’t fast enough to block all the shards, and you feel a heavy impact upon your legs, sending you to the ground.

A sharp pain in your knee forces your eyes open, and on top of your legs is your young apprentice. His small back blocked all but one of the shards from reaching you, and he shakes in pain on top of you.

Fireballs uncaringly continue to crash into Izu’s newly erected barrier, as you reach to raise the boy’s head.

Tears stream from his reddened face, and his voice comes out choked in sobs. “A-are you o-okay?” He looks painfully toward your injured knee.

You nod and rub his head as comfortingly as you can, trying desperately not to betray your actions with thoughts of the pain. You move his shredded clothes to inspect his wounds. Dark crimson pours quickly out of his skin.

You have to act quickly. “Brace yourself.” You whisper to him and watch as he nods for you to proceed. Pulling the shards from his body was the easy part, if any of this could be considered easy. You so wanted to look away as you carefully used your own flames to cauterize his wounds shut.

Izu does his best to keep from crying out, but your feel his hand desperately squeezing your own, and see his legs slide on the ground.You finish and look toward the barrier once again. Not much time left.

You pull the barely conscious Izu to be completely out of the way for what’s to come. He’ll live, but the dozens of soldiers bearing down on the barrier won’t be so lucky.

The screaming urge inside of you finally has a chance to be listened to.

Your ruby eyes focus in on those closest to you. Their bodies are like soft clay to your will, and immediately six of them are compressed into a space no larger than an apple. You fly up and then fling sealed avatar of your fury directly into the horrified face of a screaming woman beneath you.

Her boots collapse to the side as there’s no longer a body to hold them up, a hot wave of blood splashes over you, and the familiar metallic smell of your past greets you once again.

Your ears ring from the sudden explosion, so you can’t hear as you unsheathe your dagger from behind you, you can’t hear the sounds the mouths contorted with fear are screaming with, only intense heat, smell, and steady ringing makes up your world now.

Steadily moving from one Pyromancer to the next, your flame-covered blade severs them in ways you know that they’re still alive, but will never be able to fight again.

Armor means nothing as delicate limbs drop heavily to the ground, faces are scraped away from their owners, and bodies are bisected as you show one after another a unique hell that being alive can be.

The ringing in your ears ceases just as you pry off numerous delicate bits from a commanding officer, and she melts to the floor like candle wax.

Burns trace part of your arms, but you don’t feel a single thing beside your heart feverishly bouncing in your chest.

“What in the fucking world?” Justina stares in awe at the piles of slowly dying bodies you left behind. “Wow…” She remarks as she looks down at your last victim and buries an armored heel into a charred wound.

The officer shrieks in pain, and feebly tries to pull her body away.

You calm the flame on your blade, but still allow it to burn slowly.

“Anyway….”Justina pulls her leg off. “You might want to get far back, I’m going to deal with those idiots making all this steam.”

You turn to where you left Izu, and see him no longer there.

“I’m okay.” His voice tells you weakly in your mind. “I can get away on my own.”

If he’s not fast enough, he’ll be caught directly in whatever Justina’s planning, but asking her to hold off to get him will attract her suspicion.

You stop the flame on your dagger and then return it to its sheathe. “Think we can get any information out from these soldiers?” You ask, kicking the officer in the side.

She looks up from the body. “Priorities, Sophia…” Her brow furrows as she looks over your body, and especially your wings. “That explains some things, but also creates a whole bunch of new questions.” She shrugs. “It’s not a juicy secret if everyone’s going to know, and again, priorities.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” You respond hollowly.

“No you’re not, now get out of the way already.” She signals for you to head far behind her.

Well, that at least bought some time for Izu. You fly far behind her, but stay close enough to watch whatever it is she’s going to do.

Justina bends over and plunges a small blade into the officer’s neck. She skillfully creates a small ritual circle around the corpse and begins an incantation you can’t quite make out.

Suddenly, the corpse begins to bloat with unseen gas. It shakes violently and then bursts, releasing invisible contents into the air. Soon after, the sound of numerous corpses bursting open can be heard in a chain reaction, as Justina guides the unseen force from corpse to corpse and toward the target Pyromancers.

You watch as the gas carves its way through the steam and surrounds the trio responsible. Retching and screaming can be heard from even where you are, and soon they fall to the ground. The three meet a slow and agonizing end, frantically trying to escape the unseen cloud.

It’s a creative use of corpses, you have to admit, but that creativity will cost her if it happened to reach the wrong target.

You descend to the ground, where Zarn, Virgil, and Disgur rush to you.

Disgur slides toward you. “The Empress has dealt with invaders in the northern part of the city, and has turned her full attention to the front line at the palace.” He looks back toward the direction you’re all headed. “We’ve nearly finished here, so a few of us need assist our Empress.”

You’ve sensed nothing else from Izu, and that concerns you. While there’s still enemies in the city, he’s still at risk, even if he fully managed to escape the Justina’s gas cloud. But, a unique opportunity presents itself for you to witness some of The Empress’s power, firsthand.

“I’ll stay in the city and finish up our work.” You inform the others.

“Right.” Virgil rubs his chin. “Then, I’ll head over to The Empress so she need not worry about troop direction anymore. Disgur, find Sivaht and bring him to front lines.”

“We’ll meet you there.” Disgur doesn’t even finish speaking before he slides away with stunning speed, as a surging pile of flesh.

Virgil clasps the top button of his coat shut. “The leader of this little ambush is sure to still be in the city. Be sure he’s captured, alive.” He runs back toward the palace.

Zarn grunts loudly as he looks over his huge blade and then toward you. “Your feathers are looking ruffled there, Caelumnite.”

You nod toward his hand where all of his fingers look like they’ve been left in a fire for too long. “You’re not doing so well yourself, old timer.”

“It can still crush your pretty little head just fine.” He laughs and then suddenly charges into a nearby alleyway with a great roar.

The sound of metal slamming upon metal spurs you to act, so you hurry toward the southernmost part of the city. It’s slow going, as the intruding Pyromancers seem to be taking a more defensive position for some reason.

You’ve barely make up a few buildings before Zarn catches up with you.

“They’re stalling.” He snarls and looks down toward the ground in thought. He looks up at you suddenly. “They’re covering their commander’s retreat.” His chest heaves up and down in rage. “Follow behind me, and try to keep me from being burnt to death.”

He intends to break through the line using brute force, it’s not a plan you’d normally agree to, but you’re not the one taking the hits.

“I wouldn’t think of losing my shield.” You grin.

Without another word, the two of you charge down the street. You’re able to pick off most of Pyromancers before they can strike at Zarn, but soon he takes a hit to his arm, then another, and another to the chest.

“You’re not going to make it in time!” Izu’s voice suddenly appears in your mind.

Don’t even think about it.

The boy doesn’t respond.

“Faster!” You shout at Zarn, while igniting anyone in sight.

His legs push himself through the pain, as finally the two of you reach the end of the city.

Zarn carves down two would-be attackers and then falls to his knees in pain. “Finish up, Caelumnite.” He nods toward the southern plaza in the distance.

With no more enemy soldiers left, you rush ahead through the air and land directly across a large man with excessively decadent armor, and Izu.

You fling a bolt of fire toward his legs which he barely rolls out of the way of. He grabs hold of Izu, and immediately holds him up as a shield.

When he senses you’re not going to attack, he pulls out a small blade and holds it directly at Izu’s throat.

“I know he matters to you, or else you would’ve attacked already.” He shouts mockingly at you. “I’m going to be leaving now, if you follow, I will kill him.”

Izu smiles at you. “Remember training with the bucket?” You hear his voice in your mind. "Pretend I'm the bucket."

He squirms away from the blade and then wraps his body around the commander's waist.

You’re exhausted from the day’s fighting, and the pain in your knee and fingers pulse intensely with each rapid beat of your heart. But, Izu’s carrying on, and you’re not about to be outdone by your apprentice.

The corrosive flames drips from your hand only for a fraction of second before you set it upon Izu’s back.

You watch as the flame races faster than the howling air around it, and it reaches its target just before the commanders blade comes down upon Izu’s head.

The shockwave shakes all three of you, and you frantically stand to see the result. Izu still clings onto the commander’s waist as your flames have been dispersed around the two of them. But your flames aren’t finished yet.

You sense as Izu disperses the barrier around his chest, and your flame reforms to attack its exposed target. Unfortunately for the commander, he’s in the way of the flame’s nature. The blue bolt drills its way through his massive armor, and then the moment it reaches the base of his spine, you snuff it out.

The commander’s legs fall out from under him, and with a final ringing clang, the battle for the city finally ends.

Izu turns to you with a extremely mischievous grin, and then falls to the floor as well.

You wipe his dirty hair out of his face, pick him up off the ground, and cradle the battered boy in your arms.

“He’s a brave one.” You jump at the sound of Zarn’s voice behind you. “But who is he? A resident?” He limps closer and inspects Izu’s sleeping face. “He’s just a boy.” He remarks with genuine surprise.

There’s no getting away from this one, if he's just a boy, then you’ll have no excuse to take him with you. The only way you’ll be able to see to his injuries is if you admit him as your apprentice. On the other hand, with how he’s disguised, this may be the opportunity to risk a question you’ve been wondering yourself.

You wipe his face to clear the dark ash staining it. “Does he remind you of someone?” You ask genuinely.

Zarn leans forward to get a closer look at Izu, his breathing heavy as he stares at the boy’s face for quite some time. “He looks something like Virgil, but only generally.” He leans back.

You don’t see the resemblance at all, except for the self-satisfied grin he’s got plastered on his face.

“He’s actually my apprentice.” You say hefting his body up slightly. “I’ve been keeping him hidden all of this time because of Justina.”

He grunts heavily. “He wouldn’t look out of place with those dolls she brings everywhere. But, The Empress will keep him from harm if you bring up to her.”

You sigh and adjust him so his head rests on your shoulder. “For now, I’ll see to his injuries.”

“Some apprentice you’ve got here, Caelumnite.” He comments and then heads toward the downed commander. “Come on, boy. Your day is far from over.” He drags the unconscious body roughly by the hair.

"Don't let him hear you complement him." You warn as you see Izu's grin widen slightly.

~

You proceed back to the manor that makes up your base of operations. A flesh messenger appears before you before you make it inside. “Impel soldiers are falling back to the palace. Report back that status of the enemy commander.” It repeats the words in a monotone voice.

“Incapacitated and captured.” You state firmly.

Immediately, the messenger burrows back into the ground to report your news. Zarn drags the enemy commander into the manor ahead of you. You carefully proceed inside and rest Izu’s dirty body upon an ornate lounger.

>>41901264Okay, that's where I'm going to end it for tonight. A little quieter, but I want to thank everyone that played today! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the thread, and I will do my best to respond to them.

If not, then as always, I wish you a good day/night, and hope to see you again next time!

>>41901352You're very welcome! There's still much to do, and Kyraen'Asils remains sealed off from the other planes, so I can't say for certain. But nothing is set in stone.>>41901353This is also an option.>>41901365So far, only Zarn knows. He was inspired from your practice match a long time ago with Aya. Infodump would have come from Izu himself, and I couldn't find any opportunity this thread to do so. Most of the pyromancers were probably trained by other people.

>>41901459She could've but that information will have to be "extracted" from the enemy commander if you want to know for certain. A control cloak boost will likely be coming very soon, and Philomena is probably just now waking up, and trying very carefully to remain unseen as she returns to the manor.